BOULDER CITY, Nev. – Swede Savage will not be here; Angela Savage knows that. But his spirit should be, and that's enough for now, she said.

Angela lost her father, Swede, before ever getting a chance to meet him. She was born three months after he died of injuries suffered in the 1973 Indianapolis 500, and she has long struggled with the loneliness of the tragedy.

Last summer, a race fan reached her through social media. Come to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he said. See what the 500 meant to your father. See what it means to you. Reconcile.

That's scheduled to happen today. Angela will get off a plane with her husband, Scott, and uncle, Bruce, and together they will begin the emotional walk along her father's final steps, something none of them have ever done.

Angela, who has never been to Indiana, much less Indianapolis, hopes to embrace the 500 the way her father did. She hopes to enjoy the sights and sounds. She hopes she's ready.

"I was born with a broken heart," she said, wiping back tears earlier this spring at her home in Nevada. "For years I couldn't handle it. I was into drugs and alcohol at 10 years old. Total anxiety."

Much flows from that once-broken heart, but love abounds. The mother of two young boys, Chance and Cruz, is ready to give to the sport she doesn't know and receive something from it too.

At IMS, she plans to wear one of her father's uniforms she's kept stored all these years — "Daddy in a box," she calls it — and she figures to hug anyone and everyone available. She also figures to cry a lot.

Some at IMS can help with that, others cannot. Of the drivers in this field, only Buddy Lazier and Jacques Villeneuve were born when Swede's car spun in Turn 4 and smashed the inside wall. It was only Swede's second race at IMS, and he wasn't a product of local short tracks as so many drivers of his era were.

But he was something special, and that's what Angela seeks to learn more about.

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Angela Savage has saved one of the uniforms her father, Swede, used in his driving career.(Photo: Curt Cavin / The Star)

Multi-talented athlete

David Earl "Swede" Savage Jr. was born in San Bernardino, Calif., on Aug. 26, 1946, which made him 25 when he first arrived as an Indianapolis 500 rookie in '72.

He had been an all-state football player as a tight end, but his senior-year eligibility was stripped for accepting prize money for winning motorcycle races. He was no amateur anyway.

"He was an incredible athlete," said Bruce of his 6-foot, maybe 190-pound big brother. "In junior high he was the star in four sports. He was the pitcher and best hitter on our baseball teams. He was great in two events in track. In football he was a bull plowing through the middle of the line."

He looked the part too.

"Looked like all those Southern California boys," said legendary racer Dan Gurney, who keyed his protégé's ascension to IMS and for a period was his sports car teammate. "He was a naturally gifted athlete who was quick to smile and laugh.

Said Angela: "In my head he's so 'Greased Lightning,' the one everyone wanted to date or be like."

In racing terms, think Danny Sullivan before Danny Sullivan. Or a young Rick Mears.

"Good analogies," said Johnny Rutherford, who was in his driving prime when Savage arrived at IMS. "He was very serious about being successful, but if someone wanted to throw a firecracker in the commode, he'd be right there with them.

"He had a great spirit."

Primed for Indy

Gurney called Swede "a genuine motorcycle racer," but he figured Savage could do more than that. Gurney was right.

Swede adapted to sports cars just as cleanly, qualified 10th for NASCAR's 1969 Daytona 500 and won IndyCar's season-ending race at Phoenix International Raceway in 1970. He paid his dues by working in race shops and on crews before being given the chance to drive.

"He was destined to come to Indianapolis," Gurney said. "He brought a lot of two-wheel (motorcycle) fans along with him, and I really wanted to help him."

Swede had a setback in '71 when he crashed a Formula 5000 car at Ontario Motor Speedway. A severe head injury required a five-month layoff. Some say he never fully recovered.

"He was still a gasser, but that slowed him a little," said Mike Devin, who worked on the Patrick Racing crew that employed Swede at Indy.

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Angela Savage has a collection of Memorabilia and the uniforms her father, Swede, used in his driving career.(Photo: Curt Cavin / The Star)

Swede made his IMS 500 debut in '72, although his race lasted little more than five laps. The car's retirement was blamed on a broken engine connecting rod.

All Indy eyes were on Swede in '73, and he delivered. As one of the early qualifiers, he blitzed the track record for one and four laps only to be outdone later in the day by Rutherford, Bobby Unser and the previous year's winner, Mark Donohue. Swede, then 26, started the race in the fourth spot.

Of course, that was most disastrous of months at IMS, with three consecutive days of rain wreaking havoc on the race. Art Pollard had died in a crash during morning practice on pole day, and Salt Walther had a horrific crash when the race finally started on Monday. The event seemed doomed.

Swede's car, an Eagle, was fast, and he led 12 of the first 54 laps and would be one of only four leaders that day. He was just about to take the lead again when the grisly crash occurred.

His injuries were serious, and he went to Methodist Hospital in stable condition. His brother remembers getting the call at his home in Hawaii.

"It was 4 in the morning and it woke me up," Bruce said. "I didn't even realize how serious it was for a while."

Bruce came to Indianapolis to sit with his brother but never saw IMS. Swede died July 2 of complications from the injuries.

Enduring legacy

Everyone, it seems, has a happy story to tell about the prized young driver IndyCar lost that day. Swede's former chief mechanic, Mike Devin, has a tale from a hunting trip in Wyoming.

"We were out on this ridge 75 miles from civilization," he said. "Just two young guys from California, and we were probably at 10,000 feet (of elevation). It started to snow and we looked at the deer across the way.

"It was a moment to remember, one of the most perfect days of my life. Swede was a great comrade."

IMS historian Donald Davidson remembers longtime public address announcer Tom Carnegie "going nuts" over Swede's qualification run in '73, and that wasn't just because the car was fast.

"He was not a publicity seeker," Davidson said of Swede. "But he certainly was a publicity getter."

History might have changed that day had Swede not crashed. After all, his teammate, Gordon Johncock, won the rain-shortened race.

"Swede was stronger than Johncock that day," Devin said. "He was leading the Unsers. He was 'The Man' that day."

That's something his daughter will want to hear about.

"I feel like I'm 40 years late to the party, but it will be better late than never," she said. "For a long time I feared I would be sad forever and the next generation of Savages would be, too.

"What I want to do now is take what was once an open wound, sew it up and celebrate. Cap it off with joy."